<p>I’ve posted this before, but my son was actually offered a Music merit scholarship at Northwestern that exceeded what is mentioned in post #5. He also was offered academic merit money as a National Merit Finalist. And he was offered a no-loan financial aid grant, separately. (Of course, this was three years ago now - maybe things have changed…) However, I would not skip applying to Northwestern because of financial concerns.</p>
<p>Same caveat as always - for merit money, the applicant needs to be at the top of the applicant pool.</p>